Attitude of MBBS students towards opting for the medical profession in colleges of Uttarakhand

Background: Medical profession is considered as the most highly rated profession. Many students join the medical profession by their own interest but some join under parental or peer pressure. The current study was carried out to find out the reasons for choosing medical profession as career among the medical college students. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out among phase I medical students (batch 2024) from all over the state of Uttarakhand through a predesigned and pre validated questionnaire. Google form was circulated through social media platform to phase-I MBBS students of Uttarakhand. Data entry and analysis were done by using Microsoft Excel and Chi square test of association was used. Results: Out of 314 students enrolled in the study maximum 85.4% were in the age group of 17-20 years. Majority 79.6% of students have chosen self-interest for their profession as the reason for choosing MBBS as their career. Only female students chose obstetrics and gynecology as their preferred specialty and this association was statistically significant (p=0.0236). Conclusions: Self-interest was the most common reason for choosing the medical profession as career. Most students planned to specialize in surgical and medicine branches. A follow-up study would be useful to identify further trends in career choices as well as in choosing specialties because it is observed that their interests in specialities change due to one reason or another.